MALALA YOUSAFZAI, the Pakistani teenage education activist who survived a near-fatal attack by the Taliban, and her family have become millionaires due to sales of a book about her life and appearances on the global speaker circuit.
Yousafzai, 18, the youngest person to win the Nobel peace prize, made international headlines after emerging defiant from the assassination attempt on a school bus in Pakistan’s Swat valley in October 2012 to continue her fight for girls’ rights.
She received medical treatment in the UK, where she now lives with her family. The teenager is in constant demand globally, charging $152,000 per speech compared with Desmond Tutu’s
reported $85,000, according to US based Institute for Policy Studies.
Her memoir, I Am Malala, published in 2013, has sold 287,170 copies in Britain, with a total value of about £2.2 million, and over 1.8 million copies worldwide, according to a spokesman from Nielsen Book Research.
While Yousafzai has set up the Malala Fund to support girls’ education projects in developing countries, her family also established a company, Salarzai Ltd, in 2013 to protect the rights to her life story.
Publically available information shows that the London-based company, owned by Yousafzai, her father Ziauddin Yousafzai, and her mother, Toor Pekai, has a net worth of £1.87 million in August 2015, up nearly 65 per cent from the previous year.
“Since the publication of Malala’s book, Malala and her family have donated more than $1 million to charities, mostly for education-focused projects across the world, including Pakistan,”
Yousafzai’s family said in a statement.
Moglai Bap and Mo Chara of Kneecap perform at Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset, Britain, June 28, 2025. REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
Police may probe anti-Israel comments at Glastonbury
BRITISH police said they were considering whether to launch an investigation after performers at Glastonbury Festival made anti-Israel comments during their shows.
"We are aware of the comments made by acts on the West Holts Stage at Glastonbury Festival this afternoon," Avon and Somerset Police, in western England, said on X late on Saturday (28).
Irish hip-hop group Kneecap and punk duo Bob Vylan made anti-Israeli chants in separate shows on the West Holts stage on Saturday. One of the members of Bob Vylan chanted "Death, death, to the IDF" in a reference to the Israel Defense Forces.
"Video evidence will be assessed by officers to determine whether any offences may have been committed that would require a criminal investigation," the police statement said.
The Israeli Embassy in Britain said it was "deeply disturbed by the inflammatory and hateful rhetoric expressed on stage at the Glastonbury Festival".
Prime minister Keir Starmer said earlier this month it was "not appropriate" for Kneecap to appear at Glastonbury.
The band's frontman Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh was charged with a terrorism offence last month for allegedly displaying a flag in support of Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah at a concert in November. He has denied the charge.
A British government minister said it was appalling that the anti-Israel chants had been made at Glastonbury, and that the festival's organisers and the BBC broadcaster - which is showing the event - had questions to answer.
Health secretary Wes Streeting said he was also appalled by violence committed by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.
"I'd also say to the Israeli Embassy, get your own house in order in terms of the conduct of your own citizens and the settlers in the West Bank," Streeting told Sky News.
"I wish they'd take the violence of their own citizens towards Palestinians more seriously," he said.
(Reuters)